Never Forever
by drinktea
Summary: They're back in Seresu, and he can't help but think of King Ashura's secret.


_Disclaimer: Tsubasa belongs to CLAMP, though you can bet your eye teeth I want Fay._

Author natterings: I am completely fascinated with Fay and his past. I was just re-reading the earlier volumes, and some comments jumped out at me. Kurogane said to Fay: "Not you won't die. You can't die, right?" or something to that effect, and naturally my brain just ran off with a plotbunny.  
FYI: Prometheus means 'forethought'.  
Thanks for reading. Feedback is appreciated and taken out for tea.

**Never Forever**

_"Come with me," he says._

_I follow the path he's made through the collection of cobwebs. Who would have thought - a dusty corner in the grandeur of the palace?_

_"You are a magician, are you not?" His hair, straight and black and beautiful as the night, accents the turn of his head._

_"Yes," is my sparse reply. I do not know this man. I will not volunteer more._

_His eyes narrow. Out of amusement? Who knows. "I can sense potential in you." _

_"Oh really?" I say offhandedly, and continue to look him in the eye._

_His attitude turns cool, and the seal on his forehead suddenly pops out at me in the dark of the room. "Come deeper," he beckon-commands._

_We walk stone floors that haven't seen soap in decades. Light sparks from his fingertips, earning a look of contained surprise._

_"You rule a country of ice but have firepower?"_

_"You are clever," he says sarcastically at my wordplay. "Of course. Those who do not have the power worship those who do."_

Funny_, I think to myself. I don't._

_"Here we are." His hands run over the cover of a book, his lavish sleeves collecting and stirring dust. "A book of the ages. You could master it." And he hands it to me._

_I grimace at the dust gathering on my black gloves. I'm not really concentrating when I should be. "What is this?"_

_"Spells. Incantations. Old magicks, new as well." His voice is a deeper baritone in this small chamber. _

_"And you give it to me."_

_He catches my skepticism, replies to it. "You are right to doubt my intentions. I place no blame. In truth, I had hoped you would stay." _

_I do not even crack the book open. "What would this do?" _

_"Study. Become my high magician." His eyes burn in the partial dark. He extends a pale hand in my direction, and I am unsure if he wants me to take it. "There is more to come in the bargain."_

_"I'm guessing you won't tell me what else?" He's done his job well. I'm intrigued._

_He strides toward me, and I notice he looks gaunt beneath his ornate robes. His breath washes over my ear, strangely cold. "All I will say is this. I know secrets. I can live into forever..."_

_- _

It's frankly troubling, this whole business.

He means the whole business of immortality, of course.

It was quite the treat experiencing death in Oto, something he would no doubt never experience again. The shock and suddenness of it all - it was a completely enthralling feeling. Prozac for the immortal. An addiction he could never end, if he decided to be addicted. Of course, he chooses to not.

He's not that way. The years, though long, have given him the time to build his strength, to learn secrets and gather knowledge.

The years, though long, chink deeper cracks in him, through to the very core.

But he'll never break.

The others are trying to not show their concern for him at the new world they've dropped into. Kurogane pauses and checks over his shoulder from time to time, and the magician's brain says this is good but his heart tells him it's bad. He sits apart. The ice floes and heartcold snow are hardly new to him, he would know it all in his sleep.

The thought of Prometheus comes to him, and the irony of the name makes the blonde magician laugh. Chained to a promisecurse for _life_, to endure and endure and never die. So much for foresight.

His laugh scratches at his throat, so he stops. He sits beneath the overhang of ice in his homeland, decorated with wicked icicles, and thinks back on that day in that musty chamber when he sold his mortality.


End file.
